Emotional Self

Regulation
Question!
• What do you think emotional self regulation means?

• Take five minutes to discuss it in groups and then as a class.

Why Self-Regulation?
How it is related to learning.

Physical Needs Met Cognitive Abilities

Opportunities

Learning

Self-Regulation
Social Skills
Skills
What is Self-Regulation?

Ability to control thoughts and actions to achieve

personal goals and respond to environmental
factors.
Emotional Dysregulation
• We define emotion dysregulation as difficulty or inability in
coping with experience or processing emotions. Dysregulation
may manifest as either excessive intensification of emotion or
excessive deactivation of emotion.
• Excessive intensification of emotion includes any rise of the
intensity of an emotion that is experienced by the individual
as unwanted, intrusive, over- whelming, or problematic.
• Increases of emotion resulting in panic, terror, trauma, dread,
or a sense of urgency that one is overwhelmed and has
difficulty tolerating an emotion would qualify under these
criteria. Excessive deactivation of emotion includes
dissociative experiences, such as depersonalization and
derealization, splitting, or emotional numbing in the context
of experiences that would normally be expected to result in
some felt intensity or magnitude of emotion.
What is Self-Regulation?
• Self-regulation is the ability to manage your
• Energy levels

• Emotions
• Behaviours
• Attention
…in ways that are socially acceptable and help achieve positive
goals, such as maintaining good relationships, learning and
maintaining wellbeing.
Different Emotions
• Just to refresh: the 5 major emotions are in bold.

• Affection Anger Angst Anguish Annoyance Anticipation

Anxiety Apathy Arousal Awe Boredom Confidence Contempt
Contentment Courage Curiosity Depression Desire Despair
Disappointment Disgust Distrust Ecstasy Embarrassment
Empathy Envy Euphoria Fear Frustration Gratitude Grief Guilt
Happiness Hatred Hope Horror Hostility Humiliation Hysteria
Interest Jealousy Loneliness Love Lust Outrage Panic Passion
Pity Pleasure Pride Rage Regret Remorse Resentment Sadness
Self- confidence Shame Shock Shyness Sorrow Suffering
Surprise Trust Wonder Worry
CBT Model
• CBT model as a bridge to explain relationship between Thoughts,
Emotions, and behaviors.

• CBT is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, which is a therapeutic orientation

originated by Dr. Aaron Beck.

• Cognitions mean thoughts.

• The CBT Model posits that thoughts can lead to feelings/emotions which
in turn leads to behaviors.

• By following the CBT model we are well aware of thoughts and

emotions; identify how situations, thoughts, and behaviors influence
emotions; and improve feelings by changing dysfunctional thoughts and
behaviors.
Continued: CBT Model
CBT Model: 2nd illustration
Positive Example using CBT
Model
• Let us consider, Sara, a freshman in college, has a test the next
day which she did prepare well for.

• What will her thoughts be like?

• What will she feel? (Emotions and not thoughts!)

• How will she do on the test the next day.

• My point is to illustrate how positive/negative thoughts can

lead to positive/negative behaviors
Video
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JD4O7ama3o8
• TedX Talk: Feelings: Handle them before they handle you by:
Mandy Saligari
Emotion Regulation
3 Primary Strategies:
Suppression
Response-focused
Reappraisal
Situation Selection
Antecedent-focused
Suppression
Inhibiting emotion-expressive behaviour while emotionally
aroused
Reappraisal
Interpreting potentially emotion-relevant stimuli in
unemotional terms
Suggested Practices to Enhance one’s
own emotional Self-Regulation
BE A DETECTIVE

• Try to figure out your own stressors, what helps you to stay calm and
alert, what leaves you hypo-or hyper-aroused?

Hyperalert, “flooded”

Calm, alert, focused

Asleep, drowsy,
hypoalert
EXERCISE
• When you wake up irritable, exercise that works your deep muscles
is very effective relaxing and happiness inducing strategy .

Hyperalert,
“flooded”

Calm, alert,
focused

Asleep, drowsy,
hypoalert
 Question #2:
• In groups and then as a class discuss:

• What are strategies that you use to cope with different

emotions?
• Name the emotions, and then the coping techniques.
General Tips for Regulation of
Emotions
• 1. being mindful of specific emotions you’re feeling.
Do you recognize when you’re feeling anxious, angry, or ashamed? Are
there some emotions you’re better at identifying in yourself than
other emotions? (Many people have a hard time identifying when they
feel ashamed but an easier time recognizing when they feel anxious.)
Notice physiological signals (are you feeling nervous as in fast heart
rate, sweaty palms, etc..)
Labeling emotions is a key part of processing experience. By labeling
an emotion, the individual is able to recall the emotion and recognize
the context in which it arises. People with alexithymia who have
difficulty labeling emotions also have difficulty linking emotions to
experience, recalling their emotions, and processing emotion.
Alexithymia has been viewed as a “meta-emotional” defi- cit reflecting
difficulties recalling emotions or identifying situations that give rise to
emotions (Taylor, Bagby, & Parker, 1997).
Continued:
• 2. Identifying which specific emotions someone else is
feeling

• 3. The ability to cope with your own emotions.

• 4. The ability to soothe other people's emotions.

• 5. identify the thoughts you are having, which will help you
interpret what emotions you are feeling.
Self Soothing
• Self-Soothing - comforting, being kind and gentle to one self,
• doing things that feel good,
• • Find ways to relax and calm using the 5 senses - Vision,
Hearing, Smell, Taste, Touch
•  May include taking a warm bath, using lotions or incense,
listening to music, drinking warm tea;
•  This is individualistic – what soothes one person may not
soothe another;
• It is helpful to have a list of soothing activities;
o It may be hard to remember what to do when emotionally
dysregulated
• – looking at the list helps someone to remember.
Improve Method
• IMPROVE – find the skill that works:
• IMAGERY – take oneself to a different, and safe, place
• MEANING – create or find meaning in one’s life
• PRAYER – opening of oneself to the moment (not begging or “why
• RELAXING – changing how the body responds to stress, accepting
with one’s body can aid accepting with one’s mind
• ONE THING IN THE MOMENT – focusing can provide time to settle
down –– stay focused on the present, not on all of the pain of the
past or future
• VACATION – retreat into oneself for a brief time or have someone
else take care of one
• ENCOURAGEMENT – cheerlead oneself through the crisis as if one
is helping someone else